


Freezing and Frazzled

by electrairis



Category: DCU (Comics)
Genre: DC comics - Freeform, Gen, Green Lantern - Freeform, Rewrite, The Flash - Freeform, platonic halbarry, these two omg
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-15
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 09:12:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,663
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6560596
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/electrairis/pseuds/electrairis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Barry is cold, Oliver got kicked out of the Watchtower, Hal is worried about Barry.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Freezing and Frazzled

**Author's Note:**

> This is a rewrite of _Thats Rude, I'm Being Heroic_. I've taken out all of the cringe parts, and only stuck with the plotline of Zatanna going missing.

Barry Allen prided himself on being a pretty open dude. He didn't hate many things, he didn't pick fights when people had different opinions than him. However, he despised some circumstances. One of them being chilled to the bone, and the other being tensed up. When you were a speedster like he was, you had always be unbolted, both physically and mentally. Unfortunately for himself and those around him, freezing and frazzled were the only things he'd been feeling for the past week. 

Zatanna had been missing for seven days now, and counting. The Justice League were working their asses off trying to locate her, and see if she was alive. Barry had been spending several hours everyday searching in the Speed Force, looking for traces of the magician, but with no success. It was demanding work, using that much power physically taxed him, resulting in Barry capturing next to no sleep. He'd tried catching some shuteye in the Watchtower, like Hal had suggested, but the temperature was next to sub-zero. Sure, he was The Flash, he could heat himself up by moving around fast, that was what he did. But it drained him even more, leaving him with even less energy left to make a sarcastic comment to Hal. 

The pipes which dispensed heat around the different rooms in the tower had exploded, due to John Constantine summoning demons all the damn time, trying to find out some information about where the hell Zatanna was. Oliver was especially feeling the cold, and had asked Batman if Barry could fix the heating, because it would only take a second. Batman had said no for two reasons. First of all, Barry was next to totally drained, and the Justice League needed him to conserve his strength. Second of all, last time Barry tried fixing something, the Teen Titans had all ended up floating on the ceiling, prompting Batman to mention that he had no idea what child safety was. When Oliver had snapped angrily at him, rubbing his hands up and down his arms almost feverishly, arguing that "Flash shouldn't be getting lectured on child safety by a man who's gone through four Robins," Batman had revoked Oliver's access and suspended the archer from the Watchtower for a month or so.

Now Barry was stressed out, exhausted, cold, and desolate without Oliver around to make terrible puns. Truth be told, Oliver shouldn't've been around to make those terrible puns, but according to the Green Arrow himself, "life on earth drags, space is cool, there's stars and shit."  
Of course Hal was trying to cheer him up, and Barry didn't want to undermine his efforts. Hal was the only one who cared about his wellbeing, as he was being exhausted day after day. The JLA only seemed to care about Barry's health if it effected their search for Zatanna. He couldn't blame them though, having a team member disappear without a trace is bad press. 

Hal was also burnt out, along with being dead on his feet trying to find Zatanna, he still had his Green Lantern duties to attend to. Barry thanked his lucky stars, (for only the third time in his life), that his enemies were earth-bound. Hal kept having to leave in the middle of a conversation with another member of the league to try and reduce the damage Sinestro did to the Watchtower. Hal had speculated to Barry, brown hair falling messily in front of his face and blue and purple smudges under his eyes, that throwing space rocks at the Watchtower seemed to be the Yellow Lantern's newest business venture. 

Just as Barry felt himself nodding off, the familiar feeling of a hand collided straight in between his shoulder blades roused him with a shock. He groaned, somewhat in thankfulness, mostly in irritation. Not with his friend who'd woken him up, but with himself. Although Hal had pleaded with Barry to get at least two hours’ worth of sleep, he still wanted to make sure Barry was awake if something bad happened with the demons. Hal had been nice enough to bang his fist against Barry's back every time he came around the conference table, causing Barry enough pain to definitely keep him conscious. He didn't want to inflate Hal's already massive ego, but that man could throw a decent punch without the power ring. 

Hal banged his hand against his back again, and this time Barry sat up. "Yeah?" He mumbled to his friend, who looked down on him, an incredulous expression on his face. 

"Would you believe that's the tenth demon summoning this week?" Hal exclaimed, scanning the room for any signs of Bruce before collapsing into the seat beside Barry. "It feels like the fiftieth. When Spooks isn't looking, I close my eyes for a second and all I see is flashing red light and Constantine's stupid trenchcoat." 

Barry let out a soft laugh, letting it hang in the air as he focussed on Hal running his hand through his dishevelled brown hair. Barry had definitely noticed a change in Hal over the past seven-day period. His eyes had gotten more serious, the hazel colour no longer dancing with excitement whenever an argument started up along his colleagues. All he did was roll his eyes- telling whoever was bickering with each other to get over themselves. This seemed to work most of the time, Barry had noticed. Hal had played a major role in finding Zatanna, and the rest of the Justice League was beginning to understand just why he was made a Green Lantern. He had a lot of willpower to say the least. Hal was willing to sacrifice his time and energy to find a misplaced member of his team, one who he didn't even communicate with on a regular basis. 

Barry had found that his almost comatose state in his chair at the conference table helped him listen into many conversations between different leaguers. He'd overheard Dinah having a conversation with J'onn the other day, in which she'd mentioned that "Jordan would be a great leader, I'd have no problem with following his command. The only thing which puts me off the idea is that he's a pretentious dick when he's not being heroic." 

Barry had grinned to himself, Dinah wasn't wrong.

"Tell me about it man, instead of hearing ringing in my ears I hear chanting in Latin." Barry said, causing Hal to throw a mischievous smirk his way, before his features settled into something that looked like contempt.

Barry sighed in fake despair, leaning back in his seat. Hal was wearing his bitchface, and Barry knew that whenever he got that expression, he was about to go into a forty minute, extremely detailed rant about someone. 

"What's going on in the world of Hal Jordan, this lovely evening?" Barry asked, sarcasm heavily lacing through his words. Hal didn't seem to pick up on this though.

Hal exhaled overdramatically, "Sinestro is going easy on me. Do I really look like shit? I mean, I always check every reflective surface every time I go to face him, and I'm absolutely sure I look as handsome as ever."

He finished what he was saying in about twenty seconds, causing Barry to raise his eyebrows at him in disbelief. 

"A member of the league is missing, and you're worried that you're... not pretty enough to fight?" Barry asked slowly, watching as Hal's cheeks attained the slightest tint of pink. 

"Well, when you put it like that..." Hal muttered, huffing and crossing his arms. 

"Hey, if it really means a lot to you, I think you can pull off the 'I haven't slept in seven days' look." Barry said earnestly, reaching out and gently punching Hal's shoulder. 

Hal scrunched up his face. "Thanks dude, it means a lot to me." Hal said coldly, although the grin he was giving Barry contradicted it. 

Barry smiled softly back at him, checking the time up on the wall. It was quarter past nine at night, Barry's 'official' end of duty time. Since no one was around that often to tell him he couldn't leave whenever he wanted, he just assumed that after nine was an acceptable time to get going. 

"Calling it a night?" Hal questioned him, as he spun his chair around to face the table. Barry nodded, too knackered to form a sentence in return. 

Hal jumped up immediately, watching apprehensively as Barry's hands released their death grip of the table, making sure he could stand on his own two feet. He could, thank god, or that would've been awkward for both of them. 

"Are you staying here?" Barry asked Hal, who scratched his neck in self-consciousness. 

"Yeah, I thought I'd keep an eye on things." 

Barry laughed, shaking his head in disbelief. "Wow." He said, punching Hal in the arm playfully. "I never thought I'd see the day when Hal Jordan actually babysat the Justice League!" 

For some reason, he expected Hal’s cheeks to flush, but apparently that was enough tenderness for Hal Jordan today. 

Instead he rolled his eyes like he'd being doing in the meetings over the past week, and crossed his arms over his chest. "You all act like you're teenagers, someone's gotta look after you." 

Barry gasped dramatically, placing a hand to his chest in mock surprise. “Oh Green Lantern, you’re so kind! _Volunteering_ to protect the Justice League!” 

“Shut up Allen, get some rest.” Hal grumbled, grabbing Barry by the shoulders and pushing him towards the boom tubes. “Sleep well, I have a feeling Zatanna will show up soon enough.” 

Barry grinned at the other man. “You’re being optimistic.” 

Hal rolled his eyes. “That’s why I feel so terrible.”

“Admit it, Lantern, you’re having fun leading the team.”

“I wouldn’t admit it over my dead body” Hal deadpanned.

“I think you’re lying.” Barry stated, grinning as Hal basically smashed the button, sending Barry back to earth. 

Barry was right, Hal was lying.


End file.
